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On the winter trail, family style

With Amelia Evavold pulling and Emma Stattelman pushing, the girls haul their loaded toboggan up a portage from Green Lake to Flying Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on Monday. Amelia, 12, is from Foxboro, and Emma, 10, is from Duluth. The two were camping with their families last week. north of Grand Marais. (Sam Cook photo)

I had a chance to spend a day on the trail Monday with the Chris and Ingrid Evavold and Mike and Jennifer Stattelman families, who were winter camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness off the Gunflint Trail northwest of Grand Marais. They had gone in on Saturday morning, when the overnight low was 30 below zero. They hauled their gear over eight portages to Bat Lake and stayed through Monday morning.They caught several lake trout during the trip. Their kids ranged in age from 10 to 16.

I’m writing a story about their experience for Sunday’s Duluth News Tribune.

Here are a couple more photos from the trip:

Ingrid Evavold hauls her toboggan along a burned-over ridge in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on Monday. She and her family had been camping on Bat Lake, west of Round Lake, off the Gunflint Trail. (Sam Cook photo)

Chris Evavold (foreground) digs in to pull his toboggan up a steep portage trail on Monday in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. His wife, Ingrid Evavold, is pushing from behind the toboggan. (Sam Cook photo)

2 thoughts on “On the winter trail, family style”

Somehow, Sammy, at my age a snowmobile would make more sense on a trip like this. Got to respect us old timers, our love for wilderness and the irresistable urge to go there, and make room for us on the same trails. We are people too…and enjoy lake trout fishing and the quiet of the woods.

Skidoolund…
Certainly, there are places to go winter camping by snowmobile. Have at it. But snowmobiles aren’t allowed in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (with a couple of exceptions). I guess there’s room for everyone somewhere out there. …Sam